John Krolik

According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, when LeBron James was presented with several trade proposals, he preferred the one that would put Amar’e Stoudemire on the Cavaliers. Earlier in the season, LeBron was hopeful that the Cavaliers would acquire Stephen Jackson in a trade. The Warriors and Cavaliers were unable to do a deal in…

The dunk contest isn’t easy to predict. The last two winners were a 5-9 guard and a 6-10 center, so there’s no one type of dunker that can be expected to win. Sometimes the best dunks come from sheer athleticism, some involve a flash of ingenuity and creativity, and Dwight Howard’s sticker dunk can have…

2/13 10:33 am At a press event tied to All-Star Weekend, Amare Stoudemire said that there was a 50/50 chance he would be with the Suns past the trade deadline. When asked if he would opt out of his current deal at the end of this year (he is owed $17.6 million next year but…

Update 9:25 pm NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver — that’s Mr. Second Round, to you — released a statement. Not a great one, but here it is: “While we do not agree with the Players Association’s characterization of today’s meeting or the status of the NBA’s bargaining proposal, David (Stern) will address the subject of…

CBS Sports’ Ken Berger is reporting that the Warriors may be looking to shop the four-year, $36 million dollar contract of Andris Biedrins, the Latvian center currently in his sixth NBA season. Biedrins is still only 24 years old, and is a tremendous athlete, shot-blocker, and rebounder. He has an extremely limited skill-set offensively, but…

Update 8:15 pm: According to the twitter of ESPN’s Marc Stein, the deal involves Josh Howard and Drew Gooden going to the Wizards in exchange for Butler, DeShawn Stevenson, and Brendan Haywood, although it likely will not be finalized before Monday. 6:53 pm According to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, the Dallas Mavericks and Washington Wizards…

It may strike some NBA fans as odd that the team with the NBA’s best record at the All-Star break is also one of the most active teams in trade talks. Not only do the Cavaliers hold the league’s best record, but they appear to be rolling at the moment. They’re on a 13-game winning…

If you’ve watched the Warriors, you know this: Anthony Morrow doesn’t miss open threes. It doesn’t happen. An undrafted rookie, Morrow made the Warriors after hitting 17 of his 23 (74%!) attempts during his first summer-league stint. He’s barely slowed down after that, leading the league in three-point percentage his rookie season and making 45%…

Just like in baseball, properly measuring defense has been the fly in the ointment of the NBA’s statistical revolution. Tracking blocks and steals is as incomplete of a defensive measure as counting errors in baseball, and +/- based stats have serious holes as well. Since good defense prevents things from happening instead of causing them…

All-Star Weekend is great. It’s the best basketball players in the world assembled in one place, showing off their skills. However, there are still talents that NBA players have that fans don’t get to see showcased during All-Star Weekend. Here are some of my ideas to remedy that: Longest Shot Contest Put Eddie House, JR…

NBA fans have long wanted to see a one-on-one tournament of some kind during All-Star Weekend. HORSE ended up becoming a reality, so a one-on-one tournament might at some point in the future. It’s unlikely that the matchups everyone wants to see will happen, like Kobe-LeBron, CP3-Deron, Carmelo/Durant, or KG/Zaza. However, if the NBA uses…

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Hannah Karp, mostly the ones who weren’t born in America. Andrei Kirilenko, Adonal Foyle, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Emeka Okafor are all among the league’s most avid readers. Of those four, only Okafor was born in America, and Emeka is a first-generation American of Nigerian descent. While there are a…

In the NBA, it’s important to look good. Few professional athletes have their fashion choices as closely scrutinized as NBA players, and that was true even before David Stern’s dress code. From MJ and Kobe’s sharp post-game suits to Shaq’s ridiculous golf getups to AI’s baseball caps, how an NBA player dresses can become an…

Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Anthony Randolph’s injured left ankle has been put in a protective boot for an additional 30 days. This puts Randolph well behind schedule for his recovery, and likely means he’ll miss the rest of the season. Randolph is one of the league’s most intriguing young talents…

There was a time when Tracy McGrady was considered the future of the NBA. Thanks to a series of devastating injuries, McGrady is now just another guy with a ripe expiring contract. More than a few teams would be interested in using McGrady’s contract to give themselves some cap room in the summer of 2010.…

With all Juwan Howard has accomplished, you’d think he’d be pretty contented guy. After all, he’s a member of the Fab Five, one of the NBA’s oldest rotation players, and the former beneficiary of one of the most favorable contracts ever. Howard has been an unexpectedly vital contributor to the Blazers this season; with the…

Update 2/10 7:58 pm The water will be flowing again soon. Starting tomorrow night there will be water stations in Quicken Loans Arena — manned tables where water will be handed out free of charge — and the fountains will be back and operational soon. Aside any public pressure, there was the fact that building…

On 48 Minutes of Hell, Graydon Gordian has a must-read post up on the state of the once-mighty Spurs. Graydon doesn’t waste any words in saying what he thinks about the team’s chances at a title this season: “The Spurs are not going to win a title as currently constituted. To some this may seem…

Nineteen-year-old Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio is currently the NBA’s international man of mystery. NBA fans have heard about Rubio for years, and saw him more than hold his own in the Olympics. After Rubio was drafted fifth by the Timberwolves and chose to stay in Spain for at least a year, the intrigue about…

The Clippers are all but officially out of the playoffs, and have already changed coaches. Every NBA fan knows what that means: the vultures are circling around the Clippers’ productive veterans. According to CBSSports.com’s Ken Berger, Marcus Camby may or may not be on the block. Camby has been playing well for the Clippers, averaging…

Via ESPNDallas.com, 1986 Dunk Contest champion Spud Webb will judge this year’s dunk contest. Webb was recently involved in the dunk contest when Robinson jumped over Spud in 2006 on his way to a controversial win over Andre Iguodala. The 5-9 Robinson is looking for his third dunk contest championship after pulling off an upset…

Due to an interesting wrinkle in how NBA All-Star Saturday works, Daequan Cook was invited to All-Star weekend to defend his title as the champion of the three-point shootout. This means that Cook gets to participate in All-Star weekend despite the fact he has had very little success at playing basketball this season. In 31…

According to rotoworld.com, the Blazers may be interested in shoring up their depleted frontline by swapping Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw to the Wizards for center Brendan Haywood. Blake, Outlaw, and Haywood all have expiring deals, which would make this a fairly low-risk move for both franchises. Blake has been underwhelming in his third season…

For the first half of the season, Vince Carter was one of the most disappointing players in the league. In the latest chapter of a career that’s sadly become synonymous with disappointment, Carter has underperformed badly in Orlando. On paper, replacing Hedo Turkoglu with Carter didn’t look like a bad idea. On the court, however,…

LeBron James and Russell Westbrook were named the Players of the Week for the week of February 1-7. This is James’ fifth time winning player of the week this season. Handling most of the playmaking duties for Cleveland, James averaged 35.0 points, 10.3 assists, and 7 rebounds over the week. Westbrook won the award for…